A Piece Of Us Breaks Each Time
by Anti Inflammatory
Summary: Max thought he was over Chelsea. Chelsea's dating Patrick now anyway.  So Max starts dating Abby, but Max and Abby's relationship has its  Ups and downs.
1. Prologue

**A Piece Of Us Breaks Each Time**

**By- Min**

**XXX**

**Summary:**

**Max thought he was over Chelsea. Chelsea's dating Patrick now anyway.**

**So Max starts dating Abby, but Max and Abby's relationship has its**

**Ups and downs.**

**Max/Chelsea, Max/Abby, Max/Mimi, Patrick/Chelsea.**

**Prologue**

Abby sat at the kitchen table of the apartment that she used to share with Chelsea and Max, it was now just Max and herself. Chelsea had moved out six months ago, and was now living with Patrick Lockhart. This apartment wasn't meant for two people to be living in it, rent and bills were so high and Abby was wearing herself thin between her job at Max's Garage and working at Cheatin' Heart, not to mention school. She punched numbers into her calculator as she was trying to balance her checkbook, but she was still short and left with bills to pay. "Dammit!" she said as she flung the calculator across the room angrily in the direction of the door just as it opened.

The calculator hit Max square in the chest," Ow," Max said catching the calculator as it slid down." That hurts Abs."

Abby pushed the bills and checkbook into her Statistics notebook," Sorry," she said. "I didn't know you would be home this soon," she said.

Max raised an eyebrow," Were you in the middle of planning a wild party that I'm not invited to or something?"

"No nothing like that," Abby promised," Just homework," she said tapping the front of her Statistics notebook.

"Good, for a minute I thought you were going to say bills or something if it wasn't a party."

"Uh why would you think that," Abby asked uncomfortably as she shifted in the chair that she was sitting in at the table.

"Because I saw your face the day the bills came."

"Max, you have to admit that this apartment was not designed for only two people, rent wise, size wise or bill wise," Abby said," Its getting harder to pay everything between just the two of us."

"And that is exactly why I have got something that," Max said with a grin as he brought both his hands together pointing at Abby," you are going to love!"

"Extra Money?" Abby asked hopefully.

"No even better," Max said," hold on," he was excited. He turned and walked out of the open apartment door and then came back a few seconds later with his arm loosely slung around Mimi Lockhart's shoulders." A Roomate!"

"WHAT!" Abby said almost falling out of the chair at their dining table.

"Mimi was looking for a new place to live and I thought this would be so much easier on all of us!"

Abby didn't know Mimi Lockhart and honestly she really didn't want to know Mimi Lockhart, she was the last person she wanted for a roommate. She stood grabbing her stuff from the table," You could have asked me before promising the extra room to someone," she said upset.

"Abby, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for Max and I to upset you," Mimi began.

Abby shook her head as she grabbed her bag and pushed past the two of them to get out of the apartment.

"Abby!" Max called after her, but she ignored him as she hurried towards the elevators and planned on getting away from this. Max was just willing to give up Chelsea's old room like it didn't even matter to the first thing with two legs and in a skirt.

Abby left the apartment building and climbed into her car, tossing her stuff into the passenger seat. She had to get to work at Cheatin Heart in four hours, so she still had time to get some studying done at Java Café.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Max stood in the apartment with Mimi completely baffled by Abby's behaviour he didn't understand it, but then again there were times that he didn't even understand women to begin with. He looked at Mimi," I'm so sorry," he finally said," I don't know what that was all about. Abby's not like that, she's really nice and sweet and a good person."

"Can you really blame her?" Mimi asked gently," She doesn't even know me and that was her best friend's room, she probably feels betrayed. She might not be ready to see someone else living in that room."

Max had to admit that he hadn't even thought of it that way, he was just trying to help since they needed a third roommate to make bills and rent. "She knows that we need another roommate to make bills, Chelsea's room is cleared out except for some of her stuff is still in the storage closet out on the patio because she hasn't gotten a chance to take all her stuff. She is probably going to come pick it up soon," he said.

"Max, are you sure this is such a good idea?" Mimi asked," I really don't want to upset Abby. I want her to be comfortable with having me as a roommate."

"Oh she'll be fine once she gets to know you," Max said.

"Alright," Mimi said hesitantly. "I will move in tommorrow than," she said.

"Great!" Max said happily. He would talk to Abby later tonight and then she would see what a good idea this was.

Abby sat in a booth at Java Café with the coffee that she had ordered and was working on some homework, but she was still upset about what had happened at the apartment. She just didn't get it, how could Max just do that without talking to her first? Somehow she thought that after everything that had happened that Max would appreciate her just a little bit, sure they were friends and worked together, but it just seemed like he took her for granted.

Sitting in the booth she was finding it hard to concentrate on the homework, but continued to try to work on it. Her mind however was drifting very much away from the homework that was in front of her.

"Chelsea please don't do this," Max begged as he watched her packing boxes and suitecases. He didn't understand why she was doing this to them.

"Max you're making this way too complicated," Chelsea said as she threw stuff into boxes and suitecases haphazardly, not even bothering to fold anything her back was to him.

"Chels just stop for a second please. Talk to me."

Chelsea knew that if she stopped and talked to Max that he would try to change her mind and her mind was made up. Patrick wanted her, he was right for and Max Brady was nothing like Patrick."I really don't have time for this Max. I'm taking what I can tonight, anything left behind I'll be picking up on another day."

Abby was sitting in the livingroom on the sofa curled up with a book she was trying to read it, a romance novel , the only problem was she could hear bits n pieces of Max and Chelsea's fight. They fought a lot but she couldn't help but feel like this was for real this time. She closed her book and tried to think of what she could say to get Chelsea to atleast sleep on this for the night. Was suddenly deciding to move out a good idea?

"Chels don't go," Max said catching her arm," Stay. "

"Max I already told you that this," Chelsea said as she turned to face him," You and me." She pointed to each of them,"Isn't working for me anymore. I don't want it."

"Look I don't care that you kissed Lockhart okay," Max said," I forgive you. I love you, I want this, you and me. I want us."

"Grow up Max, no one stays with their first boyfriend or girlfriend. You were my stepping stone towards Patrick I kissed him because I wanted to, it wasn't an accident."

Max felt like the air had been sucked out of his lungs, and that Chelsea was squeezing his heart in her fist with those words. He had always known that Chelsea had a thing for Lockhart, he just thought that she had finally gotten over it. Was it possible that she had been using him this whole time? She couldn't mean that."I still want you," he said after a moment.

She shook her head and pulled her arm out of his grasp," And I don't want you. I want Patrick," she said.

Abby remembered that fight and the night that Chelsea had moved out like it had happened yesterday. She remembered the days that followed in which Max's heart was broken, even though he would never admit it. She had spent days and nights being there for him so that he wouldn't have to feel the pain of losing the woman he loved, but he wasn't the only one who lost someone. She lost her best friend, because Chelsea became more and more self-involved after moving in with Patrick. She finished her homework and the coffee that she had ordered.

Max had shown Mimi out and then returned to the apartment shutting the door behind him. He knew that Abby had a shift tonight at Cheatin' Heart and he decided that was where he would go to talk to her. Okay so probably not the best place to go to talk to her but at the same time she couldn't just walk away from him there because she had to work. He flopped down onto the sofa and grabbed the remote to flip on the tv and found that the cable wasn't working. "Dammit," he said with a sigh. Clearly they hadn't paid the cable yet, so he flipped it off again. He wanted to catch a race on tv, sometimes he missed the circuit other times he didn't mind not driving professionally anymore.


End file.
